Balloons

I love using balloons in therapy with toddlers and preschoolers. They are such versatile toys and pretty much every kid loves balloons. They have a permanent spot in my therapy bag (along with bubbles) because they are always a great back-up plan in case things go off the rails! Here are a few ways I use balloons to work on various goals:

• The "ready, set... go!" verbal routine - I pump them up and let them go (my little friends get to say "go")

• Natural eye contact - I blow them up with exaggerated, fun facial expressions, or wait until a child looks at me before throwing the balloon at him/her. I use lots of expectant pausing to build interest and anticipation

• Early vocabulary such as "more", "big", "up", and "down" (my little friends tell me where to let the balloon go from)

• Prepositions (in, on, under, behind) and body parts, sometimes in combination (e.g., "put the balloon on your tummy!")

• Verbs like "hit", "blow", "bump", "fly". Recently I used a balloon for targeting the present progressive -ing (growing vs. shrinking)!

• Following directions such as "go get the balloon" or "give it to Daddy" or "put it on" (I often use a balloon pump to minimize the germs)

• Building sentences with fill-in-the-blank sentence frames (e.g., "I want _____" or "I want a ____ balloon" with the child asking for different colours)

• With older kids, I use the balloon to explain how the lungs work and help them get their airflow blowing out for noisy speech sounds like /f/ and /s/

What's your favourite balloon activity?